Kathleen Valenti

When it comes to mystery novels, there’s a host of ways to die. Scuba mishap. Nicotine patch overdose. William Tell re-enactment. Yet when I set out to write As Directed, I never dreamed I’d nearly succumb to death by book. You see, I not-so-affectionately called the third book in my Maggie O’Malley Mystery Series The…

“What’s a nice girl like you doing with a book like that?” It was a question asked by strangers when they spied the book tucked beneath my arm. They’d see the book’s atmospheric cover art, skim the title, read the disquieting premise revealed by the back-cover copy, and purse their lips in the kind of…